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1. the tern even with the old data count.

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Arctic terns are long lived birds living up to 31 years. An average annual migration of 70,900km (Egevang, C et al, 2010) means that in an arctic terns lifetime they may travel over 2.4 million kilometres. This is nearly 3 journeys to the Moon and back. So how have they adapted to this exhausting sounding lifestyle. The life history traits of this species have evolved around survival resources. The arctic tern follows the latitudes with the highest daily solar energy, and therefore productivity, throughout the year (Fig.2). This means an arctic tern doesn’t see less than 12 hours of sunlight a day. There is more sunlight at higher latitudes than at equatorial latitudes allowing clutch size to increase. This shows how survival resources evidentially determine the timing and age of maturity of the species life history trait (Alerstam, T et al, 2003).

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Not only can this species migrate great distances, but it can synchronize it’s migration with other populations or flocks. A population of Arctic terns from Iceland and Greenland breeding sites were tracked and their journeys show eerie similarity within and between the populations. The study also found the terns from Greenland reached the same stopover sites only a few days between them, demonstrating clear synchrony. (Fig.3) How they keep this synchrony is still unknown but the cues for guidance are thought to be the daily solar energy. Arctic terns are also thought to follow wind patterns to assist them in flight. (Egevang, C et al, 2010).

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Arctic terns have been described as sea swallows as they are often seen riding the wind and they have very similar body shapes. This is because they exploit global wind systems to decrease the energy needed for flight and their body shapes are perfectly adapted to long distance travel. Perhaps a reflection of this is that despite the species large breeding area; they have little variation in body size and sexual dimorphism across populations. Still seen even when the breeding adults lose a significant mass throughout the breeding season (Fig.9). This weight loss has been proposed to be an adaptation to allow more efficient foraging due to reduced flight cost (Monaghan.A et al 2014).

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The arctic tern mates for life and perform a mating ritual called fish flight. They perform a ceremonial flight before presenting the opposite sex with an offering of a fish. Either sex has been seen begging for or presenting fish (Union, A. O. 2014). A desired trait for terns is successful foraging so if larger fish are presented, mating is more likely (Monaghan.A et al 2014).

However, don’t think they are all cute and innocent. They may mate for life but due to the terns lifestyle they may need to abandon their chicks if the breeding site hasn’t got efficient enough survival resources. A study comparing 2 Scottish island breeding sites discovered similar hatching success but little fledging success on the island with lower nutritional waters (Monaghan.A et al 2014). This is a life history trade-off often faced to migratory species and can lead to sneaky behavior. Arctic terns often partake in intraspecific and interspecific kleptoparasitism during breeding season. Stealing food mid-flight from their own species and other species like common terns Sterna hirundo (Monaghan.A et al 2014).

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I believe the arctic tern is the best aquatic vertebrate because it travels the distance around the Earth 60 times in its lifetime, it can synchronize its migration with other populations, it follows sunlight for food, it mates for life, it has interesting mating ritual behaviour that includes offering of food, it can survive arctic conditions, it can be resilient in its fight for survival partaking in kleptoparasitism, it is long-lived and they even look great on stamps. Arctic terns have been used on numerous countries stamps including Finland, Iceland, Singapore and Canada.

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Alerstam, T., Hedenström, A., & Åkesson, S. (2003). Long-distance migration: evolution and determinants. Oikos, 2103, 247–260.

Egevang, C., Stenhouse, I. J., Phillips, R. a, Petersen, A., Fox, J. W., & Silk, J. R. D. (2010). Tracking of Arctic terns Sterna paradisaea reveals longest animal migration. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 107(5), 2078–81. doi:10.1073/pnas.0909493107

Heina, S., & Ro, M. (2008). Modelling the occurrence and abundance of a colonial species , the arctic tern Sterna paradisaea in the archipelago of SW Finland, (April). doi:10.1111/j.2008.0906-7590.05410.x

Monaghan, A. P., Uttley, J. D., Burns, M. D., Thaine, C., Blackwood, J., & Blackwood, J. (2014). The Relationship Between Food Supply , Reproductive Effort and Breeding Success in Arctic Terns Sterna paradisaea THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FOOD SUPPLY , REPRODUCTIVE EFFORT AND BREEDING SUCCESS IN ARCTIC TERNS STERNA PARADISAEA, 58(1), 261–274.

Union, A. O. (2014). American Ornithologists’ Union, 57(2), 169–178.